CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Carolina Panthers safety Tre Boston says his hope is that he and his teammates find a way to show their stance against the social injustice in America as a team -- not as individuals. And he hopes that they will find a way to do that in time for next week’s game at Atlanta.
“We all support what’s going on," Boston said Sunday after the 22-10 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings that ended Carolina’s 14-game home win streak. “We’re going to find a way so that nobody can twist what we are trying to do, nobody can misinterpret the direction we want to go with our protest.
“We want to find a way that everybody is included, so nobody can say, 'You left out this person.' We want to make sure it’s unity. We need it here in Charlotte."
Boston considered joining San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick and taking a knee during the anthem, with the turmoil surrounding the shooting of a black man by a black police officer this week in Charlotte. He decided against it because he didn’t want to do something that would bring attention to just himself.
Fellow safety Marcus Ball held up his right fist with his index finger extended during the anthem. When asked repeatedly about his gesture after the game, Ball said only, “One love."
“A lot of us talked," Boston said. “We couldn’t get it through to everybody. It was a little disappointing. But I know we’re trying to do it the right way."
Boston tweeted later Sunday a clarification that he was not disappointed in Ball for making the gesture during the anthem.
Boston has a few ideas of what the team might do moving forward, but he wouldn’t share them.
“That’s something I want to be special," he said. “I want it so when y’all see that, y’all understand there was a lot of thought that went into this. It can be something that is so simple that can mean so much that we’re trying to do."
